air lines after pump/motor/ drop line replaced

Two weeks or so ago, we turned on the faucets and got no water from our 625' deep well. The well guy saw lots of sand in the filters, said the sand had ruined the impellers in the pump, pulled the drop pipe up 20', replaced the motor/pump, and replaced all the galvanized steel drop pipe with PVC pipe. Worked great for three days, then we started getting huge amounts of air in the lines, particularly in bathroom where water probably first enters the house. The water spurts so hard it soaks the person standing at the faucet. It usually comes from the hot water faucet, although also somewhat in cold water and toilets. We have a hot water recirculator, and sometimes it seems to take a while now to get hot water, when before hot water was always instantaneous. There also seems to be much more disolved gas in the water; water is milky at first, and clears from the bottom - very, very fine bubbles at first. Never noticed that before. In his initial attempts to fix the problem, the well guy used our air compressor to add pressure to the tank - I'm wondering if he could have overdone it, and broke the bladder? He does say the pressure holds steady at 28 PSI. Or is it something else? Check valve? Foot valve? - sometimes we can use the faucet several times with no problem. Sometimes it happens each time we first turn it on, then it might get better, then if you let it run a while, it starts spurting hard again - sometimes the water stops, and only air comes out. And it's MUCH worse in the master bathroom than in the kitchen or in the second bathroom.

Sorry for the long description, but sometimes a certain detail is the key to diagnosing the problem. I think the guy we're using knows well pumps and motors, but not too much about this problem. I hate to spend a lot more money chasing this down. Oh, we're in Santa Fe, NM, if that means anything. Thanks for any help.

lkcummings said:

... 625' deep well ...
... pulled the drop pipe up 20' ...
... replaced ... with PVC pipe ...
... getting huge amounts of air in the lines ...

Sometimes we can use the faucet several times with no problem. Sometimes it happens each time we first turn it on, then it might get better, then if you let it run a while, it starts spurting hard again - sometimes the water stops, and only air comes out.

Click to expand...

My guess is that your pump needs to go back down that 20' to keep it from occasionally getting air.

Maybe you have plain tanks and the air was over added in which case you can have a few days of air discharge causing a big show at the tap.

Or you have a bad well that is going dry.... the well guy speculated that the sediment level in the well had risen and he would go above it - maybe he was right, but you need to check water level when PUMPING - not too easy a proposition.... try to add a pumptrol before pulling it all out again. I dont think that 20 ' is critical at all in such a deep well, if you have only that margin, then you have a dry hole

Do you have or did someone add a Check Valve above ground?

bob...

Might be an above ground check valve but, that 20' the pump was raised could be very critical if that 20' is where the water is.